Four former Louisville Metro Police officers have been indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on charges of felony assault and tampering with physical evidence, stemming from the arrest of a Paducah man in 2003.
The four officers - Garry Sapp , Donald Gillenwater, Chad Kaufman and Aaron Shepherd - each was indicted today on one charge of first-degree assault and four counts of tampering with physical evidence.
The tampering charges stem from reports filed by the officers in relation to the incident. Police administrators allege the reports include false information.Louisville Metro Police Chief Robert White fired the four men last month for their roles in what he described as an unprovoked beating of Erik Wolfe early on Aug. 15, 2003. The alleged beating occurred after Wolfe was arrested by an off-duty officer working security at Bar Louisville on Baxter Avenue.
At the time of the firing, White noted that Wolfe was handcuffed in the back seat of a police car and on the way to jail when Sapp pulled the car off the road and, accompanied by the three other officers, allegedly began beating Wolfe.
In letters to the four officers, White alleged they kicked Wolfe and used batons and a flashlight to hit him on the head, arms, upper body and back.
In his letters, White accused each officer of several violations of both the law and department policy.
"Any of those offenses would have led to their termination," he said last month. "This was an unwarranted assault."
The firings came after a more than year-long investigation by the department's Public Integrity and Professional Standards units.